OLED TV Displays Feature Superthin, Energy-Efficient Screens

The trying-to-be-green consumer has quite a few increasingly-publicized options for going green: PCs, cars, energy, food, clothing... overall, the past few years have definitely made going green easier. On the other hand... green TVs?

The trying-to-be-green consumer generally has quite a few increasingly-publicized options for going green: PCs, cars, energy, food, clothing... overall, the past few years have definitely made going green easier.

On the other hand... green TVs? You don't hear so much about them now, but expect to hear more about the OLED panel TV (OLED = organic light-emitting diode). OLEDs are the energy-efficient type of screen found in cell phones, consisting of sheets of polymer that light up when electricity flows through them. Although they use a process similar to LCD screens, OLED screen don't need to be backlit. So they're thinner, use fewer parts in manufacturing, and can reduce power consumption by a power of four.

There are problems: the screens don't last as long as LCD screens (yet), and different colors age at different rates. But that's being fixed pretty quickly.

Sony plans to start selling an OLED TV next year, and Toshiba in 2009. The biggest problem now? Price. A 11-inch OLED could cost $800 to $1,000--for that much, you could get a huge plasma TV. But prices will go down--and given that OLED use a simpler manufacturing process and fewer materials, it's expected that their cost will eventually be lower than LCD screens.